North of Nowhere by Liz Kessler

Liz Kessler's series books starring Emily Windsnap and Philippa Fisher are tween girl favorites (we like Emily Windsnap, the half-mermaid, best), but her standalone books are equally appealling: this one, North of Nowhere (Candlewick, 2013), is part mystery, part magic--but to say more about what sort of magic it might be would give some of it away, so I'll stick to what Mia knows: she is stuck in a sleepy seaside village on the coast of Cornwall (no cell phones, no Internet) over spring break because her grandfather has gone missing, and she and her mother have to help Gran run the pub.

If Mia sounds a tiny bit self-absorbed, it's because she is--she's in eighth grade, after all--and Kessler's writing, in Mia's voice, reflects that. But she's also genuinely concerned about her grandfather, and eager to make friends: with a girl she gets to know by way of letters exchanged via an old diary (I loved this part), and a boy, Peter, who's determined to help the two girls meet. She's also willing to walk the dog (Flake, a border collie--I liked him, too).

The girl in the diary (Mia knows her only as Dee) lives on the island of Luffsands, off the coast of Cornwall, which complicates matters when stormy weather makes it impossible for her to get to the mainland village of Porthaven, where Mia is waiting for her. And then Peter disappears, and Mia suspects he's gone to Luffsands to find Dee.

At risk of revealing too much, the island of Luffsands is based on the true story of Hallsands, a British village that collapsed into the sea almost a hundred years ago--but even with that information, it's almost impossible to know where the story is going until it's gotten there. And even then, you might have trouble believing it! Don't say Mia didn't warn you.

[This print is of South Hall Sands circa 1900, by Gerry Miles (2007). It's just how I imagined the village of Porthaven might look, too.]

Post-Valentine's Day YA

So, I've been reading a little more YA lately--enough to make this list of YA novels that involve both a. kissing, and b. trips to Europe. What's not to love?

The Statistical Probability of Love at First Sight by Jennifer E. Smith (Poppy, 2012). Hadley falls in love with Oliver on a flight from New York to London for her father's wedding. Aside (or not): Hadley is understandably upset about her father's remarriage. He was on fellowship at Oxford over a year ago--still married to Hadley's mom--when he fell in love with a much younger woman, whom Hadley has thus far refused to meet. Adult readers must try to overlook this. Anyway, after a cinematic kiss (see cover), Hadley and Oliver lose track of each other at Heathrow, but fate and second chances bring them back together (twice!) over the next 24 hours.

Anna and the French Kiss by Stephanie Perkins (Dutton, 2010). Anna is inexplicably reluctant to go to boarding school in Paris, where she will meet a cute French boy (she should know, because her father writes romance novels). This book is like having a whole box of macarons. In Paris.

The Fault in Our Stars by John Green (Dutton, 2012). Hazel and Augustus go to Amsterdam. Before one of them DIES.

Just One Day by Gayle Forman (Dutton). Just one day in Paris with a sexy Dutch guy you just met at an underground performance of Shakespeare's Twelfth Night, followed by a year of heartache and a sequel (Willem's side of the story, Just One Year, will be out this fall). Note to future Milly: Don't even think about it.

My Life Next Door by Huntley Fitzpatrick (Dial, 2012). Okay, this one is the opposite of Europe: almost everything happens, well, next door. But there is lots of kissing.

Tulip Mania, the Sequel: Snowdrops

I read this article in yesterday's Washington Post ("Letter from Ireland: Snowdrops are a prize in full bloom," by Adrian Higgins, 2/20/2013), about the mania for snowdrop bulbs in Ireland, with great interest, partly because who doesn't love snowdrops in February? But mostly because I'm also interested in reading about the seventeeth-century Dutch mania for tulips. Unfortunately, there don't seem to be many middle grade or YA books set during the Dutch Golden Age: just The House of Windjammer by V.A. Richardson (Bloomsbury, 2003) and its sequels, The Moneylender's Daughter and The Street of Knives, which seem to involve a lot of seafaring and anyway are out of print. Maybe there are more?

Picture book readers, though, might like Hana in the Time of the Tulips by Deborah Noyes, illustrated by Bagram Ibatoulline (Candlewick, 2004). Ibatoulline's illustrations echo the style of the Dutch masters, particularly Rembrandt, who appears as a character in this book. And Noyes's work is always interesting, whether she's writing about tulips or wolf girls or Chinese princesses. And those are just the picture books!

A Walk in London for Nonfiction Monday

A mother and daughter take A Walk in London in this lively, lovely picture book guide to the city by Salvatore Rubbino (Candlewick, 2011). Their day begins at 11am in Westminster and includes Buckingham Palace and the Changing of the Guard, the lions in Trafalgar Square, lunch at Covent Garden, a climb up to the dome of St. Paul's Cathedral, the Bank of England, the Tower of London, and a boatride on the Thames. For the record, it took my daughter and I ten days to do all of that! (But we went to the British Museum, too.)

While the main text recounts the day's events in the daughter's voice ("Hello! There's me, and that's my mom!"), spot text in a smaller font highlights related trivia (during a sudden shower, "London is Europe's third rainiest city. About twenth-three inches of rain falls here every year"). Rubbino's mixed media illustrations, often double-page spreads of city scenes, are carefully laid out and layered with just the right amount of detail. They also have lots of retro appeal. Here's an example from his first picture book, A Walk in New York (Candlewick, 2009; I couldn't find any interior images of London online):

London features a foldout Thames Panorama that would have come in handy on the London Eye, while the endpapers trace the mother and daughter's route on a map of the city. Don't forget to look for the royal family's car along the way!

Reminiscent of but more child-friendly than M. Sasek's classic This is London (1959; reissued by Universe, 2004), the picture book we referred to most prior to our trip, A Walk in London is the one we read to remember it. Mr. Rubbino, if you're reading this, please take us on a walk in Rome next!

BEA and back again

I made it to BEA and back in one day and lived to tell about it! Here's my BEA story: I took the 7:25 train from DC on Thursday morning--it wasn't even the high-speed train and I still got to Penn Station by 10:45. I love the train. I can read on it, for one thing, which I can't do on a bus or in the car. And it's nice to look out the window from time to time.  All those little towns!

Anyway, I walked to the Javits Center, checked my empty suitcase (I packed the bare minimum for what was meant to be overnight stay--more about that later) and wandered around the exhibit floor, where I made several very nice contacts and got a poster signed for Milly by Peter Brown and an "I went to BEA and all I got was this lousy t-shirt" t-shirt for myself.

No, that's not exactly true. But people have remarked that books (ARCs or otherwise) were in short supply at BEA this year, and that was definitely the case on Thursday. I was a little disappointed, but in the end I came home with a few coveted titles (thank you, Susan Kusel, for Wonderstruck!) and the promise of more to come in the mail. I love the mail just as much as the train.  All those fat envelopes!

This might be a good time to mention the difference between BEA and ALA's annual meetings, which I attended last year when they were held right here in DC. In my experience, ALA was more collegial (and I'm not even a librarian); there was a sense of common purpose. BEA was more competitive and businesslike, as in business was being conducted right in the booths and everyone seemed to be in a hurry to close up shop by 3. Fortunately I knew what to expect and came prepared with a mission statement and a stack of cute business cards.

Charlotte of Charlotte's Library and Pam of MotherReader had graciously agreed to share their hotel room with me Thursday night, and I met them and several other kidlit bloggers (Alex of The Children's War and Susan of Wizards Wireless among them) for a thankfully very collegial lunch.  Afterwards, Pam led the way back onto the exhibit floor (see How to Work an Event Like a MotherReader for some excellent tips), where things were already starting to wind down. Note to self: If you attend BEA next year, try getting there on Monday.

Here's where I went off the rails, so to speak.  The plan was to meet up with Charlotte and Pam (who had another event to attend) at our hotel a couple of hours after the exhibits closed, and then go to Kidlit Drink Night at a nearby bar.  But it was hot and crowded and New York City, and as I walked back to Penn Station to catch an uptown train to the Met, I caught sight of the Vamoose bus to Rosslyn.  Next thing I knew I had traded in my Friday morning ticket and was on that bus. It was 4:30.

I had to make a couple of sheepish phone calls (thank you for understanding, Charlotte and Pam!), but it was definitely the right decision for me. I was even able to read a little of Wonderstruck on the bus. Best of all, supper was waiting for me when I got home...and it was still hot.

BEA Bound

I'll be at BEA on Thursday, provided my early morning train from DC doesn't get derailed and I don't get lost walking to the Javits Center from Penn Station. Can you tell I'm a little anxious about getting there? It's the first time I've attended Book Expo America and I'll be arriving late in the morning of the last day. Here's hoping there are still lots of lovely new books to be had! And that everyone I hope to meet is still more excited than exhausted by then.

Oh, here's a wee BEA wishlist (the middle grade edition):

A Year Without Autumn by Liz Kessler (Candlewick). A certain seven-year old I know is very fond of Kessler's Emily Windsnap series! This one looks like a lovely standalone novel with an interesting time travel element.

Breadcrumbs by Anne Ursu (HarperCollins). I liked Ursu's Cronus Chronicles even more than Percy Jackson and the Olympians. This one is a fairy tale retelling (The Snow Queen) with gorgeous cover and interior illustrations by Erin McGuire (whose forthcoming picture book, French Ducks in Venice by Garrett Freymann-Weyr, is on that wishlist, too).

Brotherband Chronicles, Book 1: The Outcasts or Ranger's Apprentice: The Lost Stories by John Flanagan (Philomel).  For Leo especially (see this post for more). 

The Kronos Chronicles, Book III: The Jewel of the Kalderash by Marie Rutkoski (FSG). This one's for me, because I adored the first two, Cabinet of Wonders (my Cybils nominee that year) and The Celestial Globe.

Tuesdays at the Castle by Jessica Day George (Bloomsbury).  Princess maps ever-changing castle and saves kingdom! It has a gorgeous cover, too.

See you there!

Lauren Child, Charlie and Lola in Slightly Invisible

For fans of Lauren Child's Charlie and Lola:  The Guardian profiles Lauren as part of their "A life in..." series ("Lauren Child: A life in books," 10/04/2010), accompanied by a gallery of images from Slightly Invisible, her new Charlie and Lola book.  I like all of Lauren Child's work, but I'm partial to Charlie and Lola because they remind me of my own kids, who when they were small would insist that I substitute their names when reading aloud.

I especially like Child's portrayal of Charlie and Lola's sibling relationship.  Charlie in particular is consistently patient with and protective of Lola, both qualities I try to encourage in my own son.  So I wasn't sure what to think when I read that Slightly Invisible, the first new Charlie and Lola book since 2003 (not counting all those spin-offs from the BBC series), was inspired by a boy who asked, "Have you ever thought about writing a book where Charlie actually gets annoyed with Lola?"  No!

Anyway, I'm looking forward to Slightly Invisible (and my son will probably love it).  This image is from the beginning of the book: there's poor Charlie, caught between Marvin's eyerolling and Lola's plaintive look.  The whole scene is instantly recognizable.

Slightly Invisible won't be available in the US til May 2011, but I plan to pick up a copy when we're in London later this year (happy birthday to me!).   A traveling exhibition of Green Drops and Moonsquirters: The Utterly Imaginative World of Lauren Child will be at the Discover Children's Story Centre while we're there, too.

How the Sphinx Got to the Museum, review and giveaway

Most of us only get to see Ancient Egyptian artifacts in museums far from Egypt--like the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City, which has one of the finest collections of Egyptian art outside of Cairo.  And while there are lots of books for kids about Ancient Egypt, this book answers the question that at least one kid on every school tour is likely to ask:  How the Sphinx Got to the Museum by Jessie Hartland (Blue Apple Books, 2010).

Hartland uses the school tour to frame the story of the Sphinx of Hateshepsut's journey over 3,000 years (and 5,000 miles), from the quarry at Aswan where the granite was obtained all the way to the galleries of the Met.  The cumulative story format--think The House that Jack Built--introduces some of the people and professions involved in her journey; on the museum side, those include archaeologists, art movers, curators, conservators, even the registrar, who uses "red oil paint and a teeny, tiny brush" to paint the the official number (31.3.166) on the Sphinx.

These vignettes are fascinating (trust me, kids ask about this sort of thing all the time).  Hartland varies the repetitive parts of the text just enough to keep things interesting; the use of a variety of fonts also helps here.  The ink-and-watercolor illustrations themselves are worth the price of admission, though:  colorful, detailed but not busy, expressive and entertaining (keep an eye on the Sphinx's face throughout).  Hartland worked closely with the staff at the Met, and the book has an authentic museum feel.  N.b., the docent is wearing sensible shoes.

I have an extra copy of How the Sphinx Got to the Museum to give away!  If you'd like to be entered in a random drawing (and you do; it's a gorgeous book), please leave a comment by midnight Monday, September 13.   Bonus entry if you comment with a behind-the-scenes-at-the-museum question you'd like to see answered in picture book form.

[Review copy from Blue Apple Books via Media Masters Publicity.  Thank you!]

The Vanishing of Katharina Linden

For the grownups, The Vanishing of Katharina Linden by Helen Grant (Delacorte, 2010), reviewed in the Washington Post (8/23/10).  There's a lot to recommend this novel to adult readers of children's books, especially ones that have something to do with the Grimms (and there are an awful lot of them, readers and Grimm books alike):  the heroine, 10-year-old-Pia (and her only friend, StinkStefan), the setting, a small town in Germany; and the local folklore and traditions that inform the whole story.  PW describes it as a "charming horror novel" (4/12/2010).  I try to stay away from horror novels of any sort, but just look at that gorgeous yellow cover.

Mouk and Moomin

Publisher's Weekly recently reviewed Around the World with Mouk by Marc Boutavant (Chronicle), describing Mouk's world as a "Richard Scarry/manga mashup" (Children's Book Reviews, 11/23/09)  There's more, including international travel to Finland and reusable stickers, but really, what else does one need to know?  It's on the list.  I also like the Boutavant-illustrated All Kinds of Families! by Mary Ann Hoberman (Little, Brown).

Speaking of Finland, PW also reviewed (same date) the reissue of Tove Jansson's The Book About Moomin, Mymble, and Little My (Drawn and Quarterly).  A Moomin picture book?  Oh...my.

Moomins in the house

Question:  Anamaria's dream vacation involves a trip to which Scandinavian themepark?

Hint:  It's based on a series of children's books.

Answer:  Moominworld!

I love the Moomins.  They're part of my childhood canon, along with a surprising number of other Scandinavian children's books (you would be forgiven for thinking the answer was Astrid Lindgren's World).  PW reports that the Moomin books by Tove Jansson are being re-released for their 65th anniversary next year (by Square Fish, the Macmillan imprint responsible for repackaging the books in Madeleine L'Engle's Austin and Time series with new cover art by Taeeun Yoo).  There will be new preschool Moomin books, too.  I'm excited (I haven't read all eight of the original books and can't wait to get my hands on them) and a little bit anxious, too.

Do you remember the Moomins?

A Spree in Paree

[We're celebrating April in picture book Paris.  Please comment with your favorite picture books that are (even remotely) about Paris, and I'll add them to my list and post them next week.  Merci!]

Thank you to Tricia at The Miss Rumphius Effect for recommending A Spree in Paree by Catherine Stock (Holiday House, 2004); we checked it out from the library last week and have toured the city alongside Monsieur Monmouton's farm animals many times since.  The animals are typical tourists:  the sheep go shopping on the Rue de Faubourg Saint-Honore, the goats enjoy the flowers in the Luxembourg gardens, the cows gaze at paintings of cows in the Louvre (that one cracks the kids up), and at the end of the day the pigs take everyone to dinner at a three-star restaurant.  It's absolutely delightful, and you can read it right here courtesy of Lookybook:

Do the animals go to New York next?  Yes, they went last year.  A Porc in New York (Holiday House, 2007), is also available on Lookybook: note the parallels between the animals' trips to Paris and New York (this time the sheep go shopping at a famous New York department store, the goats ride the carousel in Central Park, and they all have dinner in Chinatown); and the promise that next time we see them, they'll be back on their farm with an American visitor for Monsieur Monmouton.

[I was just thinking I might like to see more of Monsieur Monmouton's little farm myself (with my husband and children, of course) when I noticed that author and illustrator Catherine Stock is essentially his next-door-neighbor.  We might even rent her cottage in Rignac.  Someday!]

Poisson d'avril

We're going to Paris!

Ha!  No.  But we are reading about Paris during the month of April here at bookstogether.  I'm putting together a list of our favorite Parisian-themed picture books (there are quite a few); please comment with yours, and I'll add them to the list.

My favorite picture book about Paris is probably this one, the first in the This is... series by Miroslav Sasek (1959; reiussed by Rizzoli in 2004).  I love all of the Sasek books (we've read Paris, Rome, London, New York, and Venice):  the distinctive and delightful illustrations, the particular details of place.  For Paris, I especially like the cats; the concierge ("She is sort of a guardian angel, and there is one for many houses in Paris"); the Bird Market; the Metro (with ticket); the Louvre (with Mona)--I could go on, but I'm not really leaving anything out.  If you're planning a trip to Paris with your kids (or without them!), this should be the first book you read together.  Then Madeline.  After that, you tell me!

The Andersons Go To Williamsburg--2008

We (the Andersons) drove to Williamsburg early Sunday and came back Monday afternoon.  It was a short trip, but we all had a wonderful time (more about that later).  Even the car ride was smooth.  Milly slept a lot of the way there; the rest of us listened to the first half of The Watsons Go to Birmingham--1963 by Christopher Paul Curtis; terrific performance by Levar Burton (Listening Library, 2005).  I think we identified with the Weird Watsons (minus "official juvenile delinquent" big brother Byron).  There's dad Daniel, who likes to "cut up;" mom Wilona, who never got used to the cold in Michigan; middle brother Kenny, the narrator; and his little sister Joetta, sleeping in the backseat.  Our favorite chapters were about Kenny and how he became friends with Rufus (we love Rufus); but it's the family and especially the sibling relationships that are at the heart of The Watsons Go to Birmingham--1963.

We decided not to listen to the second half of the book on the way home after it became obvious that the Watsons were driving not just to Birmingham, but to the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church on a Sunday morning, 1963 (I know, I should have suspected it from the start.  I think the book is even dedicated to the four little girls, but I was listening to the audio version which doesn't include the dedication).  Anyway, I didn't think Leo was ready to hear it, but I'm going to make myself read the rest of it tonight.  Highly recommended.

[And Elijah of Buxton next.  I think the structure of EoB, the digressive first half and direct second, is similar to TWGTB-1963's; this time I'll be prepared.]

Going to Philadelphia

Our family is going to Philadelphia this weekend:  Axel (my husband) is giving a talk at the University of Pennsylvania on Saturday, and the kids and I are tagging along.  Not to the conference, thankfully (sorry, Axel):  we'll be visiting the historic area.  Leo, my second-grader, likes colonial and revolutionary American history, so he's particularly excited about the trip.  He and I have been reading about the people who lived in Philadelphia (mostly about Benjamin Franklin) and the events that took place there during that period (the signing of the Declaration of Independence).  What he really wants to see, of course, is the Liberty Bell; that, and buy a replica of it (n.b, there are a lot of children's books about saving the Liberty Bell).  Favorite Philadelphia books will be in this space on Monday.